President Obama discusses his fiscal year 2014 budget proposal at the White House on Wednesday. / Charles Dharapak, AP

by Aamer Madhani and Susan Davis, USA TODAY

by Aamer Madhani and Susan Davis, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - President Obama unveiled his budget Wednesday, offering a fiscal plan that even before its release was eliciting groans from his conservative opponents as well as his backers on the left.

The president's 2014 budget offered details for cutting the deficit by $1.8 trillion over the next decade, while also calling for billions of dollars in new spending to repair the country's infrastructure and bolster education.

In a statement from the White House Rose Garden, Obama touted his plan as "a fiscally responsible blueprint for middle class jobs and growth" while acknowledging the budget is largely a retread of previous proposals that he's unsuccessfully pushed Republicans to embrace in the past.

"Our economy is poised for progress as long as Washington doesn't get in the way," Obama said. The president added, "If we want to keep rebuilding our economy on a stronger more stable foundation, than we've got to get smarter about our priorities as a nation."

The plan claims to achieve $400 billion in savings by cutting waste and fraud in Medicare and $580 billion in new revenues by limiting tax benefits for top earners. It also saves $230 billion by restructuring cost-of-living adjustments for beneficiaries of Social Security, according to the White House.

Overall, it includes $2 in spending cuts for every dollar in new revenue. The budget details $3.77 trillion in government spending for 2014, and the deficit for the year is projected to come in at $744 billion, or 4.4% of GDP.

Under the plan, the White House projects the deficit will fall to 2.8% of GDP by 2016. If fully enacted, it would reduce the federal deficit to 1.7% of gross domestic product by 2023.

Even before the budget's official release, GOP lawmakers framed it as a small bore effort when it comes to deficit cutting, because it assumes the elimination of the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts, known as sequester, that were triggered earlier this year. The Obama budget also relies, in part, on raising taxes -- a red line Republicans say they will not cross.

Specifically, the president wants those who make $1 million or more to pay at least 30% of their income in taxes and limit deductions for the top 2% of earners.

"We need a balanced budget that encourages growth and job creation," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., shortly before the White House released the president's budget "We don't need an extreme, unbalanced budget that won't balance in your lifetime or mine."

House Speaker John Boehner responded on Wednesday by applauding Obama for proposing entitlement reform, but said those changes should "not be held hostage" in exchange for the president's demand to raise taxes on the wealthy.

"Why don't we do what we can agree to do?" Boehner said, "The president got his tax hikes in January, we don't need to be raising taxes on the American people."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said "that there are some things in the budget beyond the tax increases that, frankly, we can find some agreement on," while echoing that Republicans won't consider new revenues.

"I share the sentiment that we ought to see if we can set aside the divisiveness and come together to produce some results for the people who sent us here," Cantor said.

Gene Sperling, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said that raising new revenues is non-negotiable. The president's aides acknowledge that getting the GOP-controlled House to agree to new revenues will be difficult, but they maintain it's not impossible.

"The offer there for Speaker Boehner is not an a la carte menu," Sperling said.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shrugged at the White House plan to include "chained-CPI," a new measure of inflation to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security. The budget passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate doesn't include chained-CPI. The adjustments are designed to help retirees on fixed incomes keep pace with inflation.

The White House projects the inflation adjustments would reduce benefits by $130 billion and increase taxes on middle-income earners by $100 billion through adjustments to tax brackets.

"We have our budget. It was passed. It's a good budget." Reid told reporters, and it reflects "the priorities of the American people and the Democrats. The president has his budget."

On Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Obama's plan was "not the budget I would write on my own." But Murray criticized Republican leadership for remaining steadfast in their position on new revenue.

"I was very disappointed to see members of their leadership seemingly reject any compromise at all before they even had a chance to read the details of the president's proposal," said Murray, D-Wash. "I hope that those Republicans are now prepared to tell us their ideas for a bipartisan path forward.

A coalition of groups that have supported Obama in the past -- including the AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org and the National Organization for Women - delivered 2 million petition signatures to the White House on Tuesday from Americans who oppose restructuring Social Security.

"Let's face it: Instituting the chained CPI is like tripping someone at the end of a race after forcing them to run on the outside lane the whole way," said NOW President Terry O'Neill.

Obama said Wednesday that he doesn't believe all of his proposed cuts are "optimal" but he's willing to accept them as part of a compromise in return for GOP concessions on tax revenues.

"If we're serious about deficit reduction, than these reforms have to go hand-in-hand with reforming our tax code," Obama said.

The budget will also lay out more details of Obama's wish list for new spending that he says will help spur job growth and equip Americans for a rapidly evolving economy.

In his State of the Union Address in February and subsequent speeches, Obama has said that he wants to earmark $50 billion for infrastructure investments and $1 billion to launch a network of up to 15 manufacturing innovation institutes. He also wants to establish a universal early education program that would make preschool available to all low and middle-income families.

The preschool initiative, which would cost $66 billion over a decade, would be paid for with a significant hike in the federal tax on cigarettes, raising the rate of $1.01 per pack to $1.95 per. Obama also included $750 million in discretionary development grants in 2014 to help start the program.

Obama will have the opportunity to begin selling Republican lawmakers later on Wednesday. He's hosting 12 GOP senators for dinner at the White House Wednesday night.